Monday, September 6, 2010

Card Of The Week September 5

In honor of labor day, here's a card of the current head chairman of the board of the Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA), Chunichi Dragons infielder Hirokazu Ibata (from the 2003 Chunichi Sports Dragons set):

4 comments:

Mischa Gelman said...

When did Ibata become head of the union? I know Takahiro Arai was head as of 2008.

NPB Card Guy said...

According to this, Ibata became "chairman of the JPBPA" in December of 2009, taking over from Hiroki Kokubo (who I'm guessing took over from Atsuya Furuta when he became Swallows manager). I assumed that chairman=head of union, but maybe that wasn't correct.

Mischa Gelman said...

Furuta was Players' Chief and Kokubo Chairman of the Board, two different positions. So, Ibata is holding a different position than Furuta did. See http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Japan_Professional_Baseball_Players_Association

NPB Card Guy said...

You know, I knew I should have looked this up for the details. Thanks for the clarification.